Put no trust in …

The two decisions from the Supreme Court today were pretty much what I expected them to be.

We comfort ourselves by saying “It could be worse” and while certainly true in many ways “It could be worse” seems to be the new standard.

Mark Shea quoted J.R.R. Tolkien today in response to this story.

“I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ – though it contains some samples or glimpses of final victory.”

It is easy for me to loose my equilibrium regarding this. This mockery of marriage in the name of equality. When the very problem of so-called same-sex marriage is that it is too equal. Same-sex marriage is like being giving a Lego set where the blocks only had “studs” and no connectors and told to build something with them.

Yet while being greatly annoyed by this I remember Ps 146.

Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have being.

Put not your trust in princes,

in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

When his breath departs he returns to his earth;

on that very day his plans perish.

Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the LORD his God,

who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that is in them;

who keeps faith for ever;

who executes justice for the oppressed;

who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;

the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.

The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;

the LORD loves the righteous.

The LORD watches over the sojourners,

he upholds the widow and the fatherless;

but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The LORD will reign for ever,

thy God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the LORD!

There are certainly a lot of oddities in regards to the response to this decision.

The President who signed DOMA rejoicing that the law he signed was declared unconstitutional.

Democrats happy that the will of the people of California was overturned by a Judge and two member so the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Vaughn Walker has punk’d the whole system. A judge with Same-Sex Attraction had more than just a conflict-of-interest. Democrats again show their consequentialism and that it doesn’t matter how dirty the process as long as they get what they want.

Plus I have been rather disturbed by number of otherwise-faithful Catholics who have been promoting Same Sex Unions as a compromise. As then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in the document regarding giving legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons:

Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil.

While there might be cases where such a support of this could be to limit the harm, the problem is that this is seen as an acceptable compromise and not an evil in itself.

When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral. Jimmy Akin when writing on this subject under the section “Limiting the Harm of Homosexual Union Laws” said:

When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is already in force, the Catholic politician must oppose it in the ways that are possible for him and make his opposition known; it is his duty to witness to the truth.

If it is not possible to repeal such a law completely, the Catholic politician, recalling the indications contained in the Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, “could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality”, on condition that his “absolute personal opposition” to such laws was clear and well known and that the danger of scandal was avoided [Evangelium Vitae 73].
This does not mean that a more restrictive law in this area could be considered just or even acceptable; rather, it is a question of the legitimate and dutiful attempt to obtain at least the partial repeal of an unjust law when its total abrogation is not possible at the moment.

Just on a prudential level I think it is foolish to support same-sex unions since this would never appease the homosexual activists and would just be a steeping stone. Instead of limiting evil, it would only be seen as a partial victory with encouragement for the the figment of same-sex marriage.

Mark Shea also wrote today:

Guy who promised he would not interfere with religious liberty before forcing Catholics to pay for somebody else’s contraception at gunpoint, and who tried to force Lutherans to ordain who he said they should ordain now promises that he will not try to force religious institutions to accept gay “marriage”. This is the Constitutional Scholar who also believes the Executive–who coincidentally happens to be be him–has the raw power to jail citizens forever without charge and even, when he deems it appropriate by his royal, secret, and unilateral will, to murder citizens without evidence, arrest, trial, judge, jury, or appeal.

Interesting how the supine media reports it. Not that Obama “can’t” force religious institutions to accept gay “marriage” (because, you know, the Constitution), but merely that he “won’t”. Message: A royal stay of execution from our Just and Wise Leader who has pity on a defeated foe of Progress. Not an executive prevented by the rule of law from doing whatever he likes.

Right now we are in the first week of the Fortnight for Freedom. I am thinking more likely we need a Fortyear for Freedom for prayer and fasting in regards to religious freedom. While the Supreme Court decisions could have been worse, still this is seen as a victory for those supporting the fiction of same-sex marriage. Our religious freedom is under direct attack and the attacks will only grow.

Pray or we will become prey for the elites that would shut us up under the intolerant banner of tolerance.